Crystal Castles

Alice Glass of Crystal Castles is a riot girl in a literal sense of the words. She thrashes and rampages around on stage, chain-smokes, flings microphones, and occasionally punches fans. Shes performed with cracked ribs from a car wreck and infamously forced organizers to shut down the Crystal Castles 2008 Glastonbury performance after she drove fans into a frenzy by repeatedly stage-diving and climbing the stage rigging. Most recently, Glass broke and then re-broke her ankle but still spent the first month or so of this year performing, on crutches. Shes a wild child, but is there any other way to perform Crystal Castles music? The disorienting combination of Glass creeping vocals and bandmate Ethan Kaths glittering, thudding synths and shredding guitars is giant and otherworldly (one poetic YouTube commenter likens it to alien orgasms); the only way to truly experience this kind of stuff is through a ripping, raving, shellshocking performancewhich Glass is all too happy to provide for their fans, physical safety be damned. With Suuns. ERIN K. THOMPSON